Fight Log Media is a performance based company that’s specializes in providing the best training journals to combat sport athletes.
A full fledge participant in various fighting sport sectors, through his own experience owner of the Fight Log company Jerome Gage has first-hand knowledge of the daily grind to becoming a better athlete.
Reflective on his journey into the creation of these helpful training logs, Gage sits down with us at US Combat Sports as he gives us an in-depth look at how Fight Log Journals can help you reach your goals.
Combat sports activities in general are an enriching yet rigorous process to excel at. With so much knowledge to absorb why is this an ongoing hurdle for athletes?
Jerome Gage: There is a lot to learn in any martial art or combat sport. In fact, I don’t think we ever stop learning. As athletes, I think one aspect we often lack is structure and the proper framework for learning. We often train one day at a time. More simply, what I mean by this is we can be short-sighted and have a short memory.
There are many learning models out there but one of the models that work for me is the Self-Regulated Learning model. There are three phases of a learning cycle: the Forethought Phase, the Performance Phase, and the Self-Reflection Phase. Most of us athletes spend all our time in the Performance Phase, meaning we have our tasks for the day; we go over some techniques, drill, and spar and call it good. However, by including the other two phases such as the Forethought Phase (Goal Setting) and the Self-reflective Phase (Periodic Reviews), we can learn faster and retain more.
Being a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner yourself discuss with us your experience that inspired you to create Fight logs?
Jerome Gage: I am mainly a Jiu-Jitsu guy now, even though I still enjoy boxing from time to time. I have always kept notes from seminars and private lessons I had taken. However, strangely enough, the catalyst that spurred me to start Fight Log Media came from helping my friend George Roop get ready for his Hioki fight in UFC 137. When we were preparing for that fight we had a specific goal for every training session. Based off film study of Hioki, we focused on escaping side control, escaping mount, and more importantly doing both of these while defending the triangle from these positions (If you have not seen Hioki’s fights you should. This man can hit a triangle from anywhere.). Every practice we had very specific goals on training these positions. We used deliberate practice, meaning we talked about what we would do, we trained it, and then we would self-reflect on what was working for him and what was not. We continued this for a few weeks prior to the fight. During the fight it worked out well. George found himself in these positions and defended very well.
From that point, I began thinking of ideas on how I could put together a format that all fighters could self-guide their training and take advantage of this learning method. Four months after that, we launched www.fightlogs.com.
Now various sports programs such as Cross Fit, Football, and even Ballet require training logs. How does your log manual represent for our fight community?
Jerome Gage: Funny you should mention football. Prior to getting into martial arts, I had a brief stint in college football. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, that is where I learned about the Self-Regulated Learning model. We were always making goals for a practice, videotaping the practices, and then watching the practice film to make adaptations to our coverage techniques or footwork. We had a constant cycle of learning from the Forethought Phase to the Performance Phase to the Self-Reflection Phase. I learned and improved more in one year of college football than I did the prior eight years.
Our training logs can do the same thing. If used correctly and consistently there is no doubt that athletes will make drastic improvements in their games. Each of our logs is specifically designed for each sport so no matter what your focus is we can help you make and achieve your goals.
For those that are not familiar with what the Fight Log is, can you tell us a little about it and how it works?
Jerome Gage: Sure! We offer four different types of training logs, all specifically designed for their particular sport. We carry The Jiu-Jitsu Log, The Mixed Martial Arts Log, The Boxing Log, and The Wrestling Log. All of these logs were designed with the help of black belts, professional fighters, former Division I wrestlers, wrestling coaches, boxing coaches, and everyday practitioners.
Our training logs are broken into what we call periods. Each period consist of either 10 or 18 training pages. Each of these pages is to be filled out each day you practice or train. These daily training pages can help track techniques, time trained, weight, training partners, meals, or more; as I mentioned earlier, each log is a little different and uniquely formatted to each sport.
Prior to each period there is a goal sheet. On this page you are prompted to create very specific goals for the upcoming period of time. These goals can range from area of focus to hours trained in a specific area. Following the period of training sessions you are prompted to review your training over the period and review your goals that you made in the goal-setting page. Using our review page you can give yourself and your training an accurate critique and monitor your progress. You can use your self-evaluations to make the adaptations to your goals for the next period goal setting page.
So you can see the Forethought Phase followed by the Performance Phase, which is followed by the Self-Reflection Phase and back through again.
Each training log also has some unique sections. The Jiu-Jitsu Log has additional pages for Private Lessons, Seminars, and Tournaments. The Mixed Martial Arts Log has Scouting Report forms, Game Plan Pages, and Fight Pages to record your victories. The Boxing Log has Game Plan Pages and Fight Pages. The Wrestling Log has enough Tournament Pages to record every match you would have all season long.
Various aspects are essential when it comes to an athlete’s enhancement in their practiced field. How does Fight Log assist with such mechanisms like mental training, time management, goal setting, and other important components centering on a fighter’s improvement?
Jerome Gage: All athletes should keep a training journal of some sort. Many studies have shown time and time again that writing down goals, experiences, and feelings about their training will improve an athlete’s performance.
I think many athletes underestimate the benefits of using a training journal. If you were to ask a fighter, in this case we will use MMA, is your sport more physical or mental? More often than not he would say MMA is more mental than physical. Then ask, are you taking supplements? He often answers with protein, amino acids, and some sort of recovery drink. Well what about his mental supplementation? If his sport is more mental than physical, he should be supplementing the mental aspect of his training just as much as the physical.
What has the overall feedback been from your clients that have used your products?
Jerome Gage: We absolutely love hearing from our customers. We try very hard to have an active conversation with our customers and have received some fantastic feedback from them. Even some of our most loyal customers have inspired changes in our products. It’s because of them that we are putting out the best products on the market.
We have received some praise by some very influential athletes and coaches across the country such as the Mendes brothers, Robert Drysdale, Jens Pulver, the best youth wrestling coach in the nation Mike Krause, and many more. You can check out our non-paid endorsers on our website. http://www.fightlogs.com/Testimonials.html we have a great support group. We are thankful for every one of them.
Aside from these helping learning materials does fight logs specialize in any other areas?
Jerome Gage: We are focused solely on training logs. Last year we briefly put out some t-shirts, but at our core we are a performance company. We only want to put out products that can improve the performance and focus of our customers. We want to stay focused on our goal and that is to produce the best training journals in the world.
Any finals thoughts before we close this interview?
Jerome Gage: My only advice to athletes out there is after every training session answer two questions on paper:
1.) What is one thing I did well today?
2.) What is one thing I could have done better today?
Doing these two easy things on a daily basis you can speed up your learning process and increase your self-awareness.
Special thanks/shout out?
Jerome Gage: I’d just like to thank everyone that has supported us since we started this journey two years ago. Among those I’d like to name Kevin Jones my BJJ instructor good friend, George Roop, and Paul Moran and the guys from Open Mat Radio.
Most of all I would like to thank my girlfriend Bernice, who is a huge part of Fightlogs.com.
